In Their Words: Herefords Bred for QLD Conditions
30 July 2025
Rob & Hazel Bruggamann
Graziers
Taroom, Central QLD
Rob and Hazel have been running Herefords on their Taroom property since 1973, building a herd of around 400 breeders across roughly 4,000 acres of brigalow-bottletree country. Buffel grass has come naturally over the decades and now forms the backbone of their pasture base.
At close to 88 years of age, Rob is still learning, still calving, and still culling rigorously. Temperament is non-negotiable. So is udder quality, fertility, and structural soundness. The result, built over decades of discipline, is a herd of quiet, productive Hereford cows with beautifully short coats.
Rob came to Jarrah Genetics wanting to source cattle that suited his climate - good doers with carcase quality, not raw-boned show types. The Becker’s program offered exactly that: moderate-framed bulls with genuine doing ability, strong weight-for-age performance, and the kind of durability that translates at the meatworks.
The proof is in the results. Rob's operation is EU Grasslands accredited and Nature's Fresh accredited, and he reports consistently averaging above 60 on the MSA Index across entire loads - not just a handful of standouts, but the whole mob. He points to a 21-month-old grass-fed steer that weighed 670kg live, carried only milk teeth, dressed close to 350kg with 15mm of fat, and graded into the EU Grasslands category with a carcase he describes as “absolutely perfect.” That steer had never seen grain.
He's also seeing Jarrah’s influence starting to compound across generations. His weaning weights are up, and his MSA results are speaking for themselves. For Rob, the consistency is what matters - not the occasional outlier, but the depth across the draft.
The operation is now largely run by his son Alan and long-time stockman Joshua, who Rob trained from 18 and who's been with them for over 13 years. But Rob still knows every cow, still watches the calving paddock, and still has the first-calf competition running every year. Joshua won it this time around.
Rob's advice to anyone considering a Jarrah bull? “Stay home, I don't want to be bidding against you.”
